The Long-Standing Online Campaign, beginning in Germany, travelling through Italy and Greece to the Sea of Azov.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Climbing Higher

The drifting tunnel continues upwards for an uncomfortable distance and after about five minutes you're tired from the climb. As the torch begins to breathe it's last, giving about three minutes warning, you come across a place in the tunnel that seems to have been shifted by an earthquake (which are fairly common in the area) ages ago. The difference is perhaps six inches, with the tunnel above you simply shifted to the left and some stones in the walls and ceilings broken.

It seems to be stable, however; the dust on the floor suggests the shift happened at least years ago. However, more recent, something has emerged from the rift and crawled upwards along the tunnel, leaving a trail of grease behind it about three feet wide.

The grease seems to stick at first, but no smoking or melting detected. However, an examination of your polearm indicates that the butt end has no grease on it; the wood has been scoured a little, as though with an abrasive.

The grease does not cover the whole surface of the passage floor, only a thirty-inch wide path.

Kismet displays the end of the polearm to the others and shrugs. He does one more test. Taking a leather glove from his pack he presses it against the grease and removes it (much as one would when walking on it).

If the glove is damaged by this, he will not walk on the trail and proceed. If not he proceeds stepping on the trail as necessary.

It is difficult to climb the stairs without touching the grease track, so that the edges of your shoes do get 'cleaned' a bit. The stairs lead to a long corridor; this drifts left as it comes to a ledge, a continuous structure of rock that continues for about thirty feet. The hall widens and it is easier to walk alongside the track, which now begins to follow the right side of the hall.

At the end of the ledge, you find a door; this has been half-eaten away and hangs loose on one hinge. Beyond the door is a room. It might have been a guard's room of some kind; you find some half-devoured bedsteads and other furniture, broken pottery and shreds of clothing. A table with two legs eaten away is on the left side; a collection of stone holes for storage were long ago drilled into the wall on the right. This seems to contain some books. There seems to be no evidence of living persons in the chamber.

The track now covers every part of the room; whatever it was seems to have been everywhere in here.

Across the floor is the remains of a heavy ladder that leads up into a hole in the ceiling. The bottom three feet of the ladder are gone.

"If we're quick I assume no harm for our feet. Let's grab the books, perhaps Sofia should be last if we need a boost to get up the ladder? I anticipate she has the best chance of getting up without the bottom rungs."

The challenge that is required for climbing is only that because you're armored and loaded with gear, you'll probably have to put some sort of step under the ladder. You won't be able to just pull yourself up by the arms.

You could boost each other, but a step would be easier and could be made out of any of the damaged furniture around you ~ bedsteads on the right, table on the left.

Sofia, you succeed in your wisdom check. As you see Enrico and Lukas move towards the two sides of the room, you notice there is movement against the far room; this seems to ripple as a long stream that follows the baseline of the wall. You warn the others and they turn to see; and as you watch, this rippling draws together as a black, pasty mass, about four feet in diameter. It is about one hex from where Enrico would have reached for the books and one hex from where Kismet would have begun building a platform under the ladder.

Yes she could, of course, light the new torch from the existing one. Is Sofia holding the torch? If so, why would you not just say so when you spoke of lighting a new torch? It's a matter of pulling it from your sack (it would stick out) and putting the two together. That doesn't take 5 AP, that just takes 2 AP.

Kismet, I'll move you back to 0507 and set up a new post. I'm going to recolor the debris so that it is grey and easier to ignore - but take note, rushing forward into combat (two or more movement, then swing) across a hex line covered in detritus is going to require a dexterity check. A fail will mean you fall on your face.